I was born in Ramat Gan in 1965. My parents made aliyah from South Africa in 1959. My wife Naama and I, and our five children, have lived in Beit Shemesh for the past 14 years. I attended educational institutions in the state-religious sector, including the Kfar Haroeh yeshivah high school where I had my first encounter with Diaspora Jewry as part of a Ministry of Education mission to Jewish schools in the United States.

I started out in the Bnei Akiva youth movement as a group member, and later became a youth leader and a coordinator. These were very meaningful years in terms of developing my personality – as well with regard to ethical-religious aspects, my belonging to the state of Israel, my commitment to it etc.

I joined the IDF in 1985, in the Intelligence Corps, where I served for 25 years in various command and central command positions. I left the IDF with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

During my military service I took a sabbatical of six months, when I studied at the Har Etsion Yeshiva at Alon Shvut. During this time I became acquainted with new approaches in the Torah world, and new attitudes towards different issues on the public agenda. I also got to know students from different communities around the world who came to study at the yeshivah, some of whom decided to make aliyah.

As an IDF officer I understood the importance and the necessity of the existence of a moral-conceptual base among youth growing up in the country, which could provide them with the understanding and the justification for our being a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, and not just a state that provides safe refuge for the Jews of the world.

During my military service I gained a bachelor’s degree in social sciences, from Bar Ilan University, and a master’s degree in business studies from Ben Gurion University.

When I left the army I opted to work in education and, today, I am deputy principal of a high school in Beit Shemesh, and teach civil studies. I joined the Partnership around 3 years ago, when I retired from the army, and I consider my role in it both a privilege and an opportunity to act and to impact on the consolidation and advancement of the Jewish people. The wish and need shared by all the Partnership communities, to forge a meaningful Jewish identity, the common initiatives and activities for the advancement of the communities, and the mutual guarantee between them, for me reflect the fact that we are a single family in a single nation.